Korea under Japanese rule

[NNN0LHI]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korea_under_Japanese_rule

Japanese war crimes

During Japanese Occupation of Korea, many Koreans became victims of Japanese war crimes. Korean villages found hiding resistance fighters were dealt with harshly, often with summary execution, rape, forced labour, preventable famine and looting.

Per Chosun Ilbo, to this day, valuable Korean artifacts can often be found in Japanese museums or among private collectors. According to the investigation of the South Korea government, There are 75,311 cultural assets that were taken from Korea. Japan has 34,369; the United States has 17,803. Today, Korea frequently demands the return of these artifacts to which Japan does not comply.

Koreans along with many other Asians were experimented on in Unit 731, a secret military medical experimentation units. The victims who died in the camp included at least 25 victims from the former Soviet Union, Mongolia and Korea. And the forced labor toll for Korea comes to 450,000 in Japanese proper.

During World War II, women who served in the Japanese military brothels were called Comfort women. Historians estimate the number of comfort women between 10,000 and 200,000, which include Japanese women. According to testimonies, there were cases that Japanese officials and local collaborators kidnapped or recruited under guise of factory employment poor, rural women from Korea (and other nations) for sexual slavery for Japanese military.

As investigations continue, more evidence continues to surface. There has been evidence of the Japanese government intentionally destroying official records regarding Comfort Women. Nonetheless, Japanese inventory logs and employee sheets on the battlefield show traces of documentation for government sponsored sexual slavery. In one instance, names of known Comfort Women were traced to Japanese employment records. One such woman was falsely classified as a nurse along with at least a dozen other verified comfort women who were not nurses or secretaries. Currently, the South Korean government is looking into the hundreds of other names on these lists.

Colonial Korea was subject to the same Leprosy Prevention Laws of 1907 and 1931 as the Japanese home islands. These laws permitted the segregation of patients in sanitariums where forced abortions and sterilization were common, even if the laws did not refer to it, and authorized punishment of patients "disturbing peace" as most Japanese leprologists believed that vulnerability to the disease was inheritable. In Korea, many patients were also subjected to hard labor.

[KharmaTrain]

1. North Korea Has Had One Hell Of A Century...

Between the Chinese, Japanese and Russian occupations and then into the ruthless reign of the Kims, this has to be the most repressed place on the planet.

[soryang]

2. The US killed millions of Koreans in the Korean conflict

...with an indiscriminate bombing campaign that flattened every cultural feature in North Korea.

[old mark]

9. After the North Koreans along with the Chinese invaded the south, and

killed thousands there....

mark

[soryang]

13. That makes killing civilians indiscriminately okay?

The Chinese didn't invade the North until McArthur began bombing across the Yalu River. The south Koreans shelled the north accross the DMZ before the North Koreans attacked. The US followed the bombing strategy of wholesale killing of civilians because their really weren't many significant tactical targets in North Korea, it was a peasant country.

[pampango]

3. Japan did the same thing in the Philippines and other places. Germany did horrendous things

in Poland and much of occupied-Europe.

I realize that some people, particularly the elderly who lived through it, of these countries will harbor ill-will their whole lives. Practically all countries realize that they have to move on in their relations with Germany and Japan. Fostering hatred towards them for the sins of past generations, just to distract your own citizens from shortcomings of your own government, is a patently obvious ploy. I'm sure that most Poles, French, Dutch, etc. realize that fostering hatred of Germany today (similarly, most Filipinos, Malaysians, South Koreans, etc. towards Japan) does nothing to make the lives of anyone any better.

[Captain Hilts]

11. Remember, it was the German consular officer who reported Nanjiing and what

the Japanese were doing there and how horrified he was.

[Obamanaut]

4. Yes, people can indeed be cruel to other people. But after a few

generations, is it possible for some degree of reconciliation, or must grudges be held forever?

[NNN0LHI]

5. Are you prepared to forgive and reconcile with those responsible for 9/11?

[Obamanaut]

6. Did you miss the part about "after a few generations" or did you

simply ignore it? You are aware that usually after a few generations the actual participants on both sides of an argument or incident are no longer alive, aren't you?

I was in Tokyo, and no one spat on me, even though MANY years ago their city was bombed and burned.

I was at the Arizona Memorial in Pearl harbor and there were Japanese tourists there as well, and we were civil to one another. I used their camera to take a group picture for them.

I was in Bremerhaven and was treated cordially, even though their area was bombed during WW2 - by Americans.

Let it go. Get over it.

edited to add Pearl Harbor to the Arizona Memorial

[pampango]

8. You're not? You won't be able to reconcile with the descendants of those responsible for 9/11?

In many Asian countries older folks hated the Japanese because they lived through the wars and occupations. Younger generations don't hold the current generation of Japanese responsible for the sins of those long dead.

[Forkboy]

7. I'm not following your point in posting this?

If it's just a random history lesson, cool, though I already knew this. If it's related to something else, like the nuclear test yesterday, what is the relevance between the two?

Sorry, it's early and I'm slow, a dangerous combination. :)

[Captain Hilts]

10. The Koreans, like Filipinos, STILL hate the Japanese because of it. nt

[pampango]

14. Baloney. My in-laws are Filipinos. The older ones, who lived through the war, still can't stand

Japanese, but the younger generations do not hate the Japanese. They are smart enough to know that you don't blame children and grandchildren of those Japanese who occupied the Philippines for the sins of their fathers and grandfathers.

Jews don't hate current day Germans because of what Hitler did. It might be useful for Israel politicians to try to whip up anti-German sentiment as a distraction for their own governing failures, and I suppose you wouldn't blame them for doing it, but they have chosen to move ahead, as have the governments and people of the Philippines and other Asian countries who do not live in the past, but in the present.

[Captain Hilts]

15. Certainly there are exceptions to my comment and yours, but Japan's lack of

an apology is an obstacle to wider cooperation in the region. This is getting more attention now because of the rising power of China economically and militarily.

Your anecdotal evidence is noted. It's bigger than that.

[pampango]

16. I've lived in the Philippines. Your information is anecdotal, not mine.

You need to get to know the people of Asia a little better. None of them are holding their breath waiting for an apology from Japan, since the people who would be apologizing are not the ones who committed the crimes. All but the oldest generation accept Japan and its people as they do any other country and its people.

[BlooInBloo]

12. Did somebody institute the "one free Nuke 'Em" rule when I wasn't looking?